Coming soon: Settle PTPTN loans at airports before flying abroad

The National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) loan defaulters who are on the immigration blacklist would soon be able to settle their loans at airports before they are allowed to travel abroad.

This is among the facilities to be introduced by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) at KLIA2 to improve the queue management system. 

Blacklisted travellers were one of the reasons for the long queues at immigration checkpoints.

Counters will be set up earliest by April, together with kiosks that would enable the travellers to check their travel status.

"A lot of Malaysians travelling abroad were restricted from leaving the country because of student loans or for being declared as bankrupt," said MAHB managing director Badlisham Ghazali, who held a joint press conference with Immigration director-general Mustafar Ali.

"We will set up counters at KLIA2 for people to settle their PTPTN loans, so that they can travel (abroad).

"They would have bought the flight tickets but were stuck here while their families went through (immigration checkpoints)."

The service will also allow travellers to resolve their outstanding issues such as insolvency and taxes, he added.

The improvement was initiated by Immigration and MAHB, with the help of PTPTN, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

"The kiosks and an office will be ready in a couple of months, perhaps in April," said Mustafar.

Earlier, Mustafar and Badlisham met the representatives from various government agencies, including IRB and PTPTN.

Meanwhile, both local and international media flocked to the airport today waiting for Mustafar and Badlisham to respond to the leaked closed-circuit television (CCTV) involving the death of Kim Jong-nam.

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar had revealed today that preliminary analysis showed extremely toxic chemical, VX nerve agent, was used on Jong-nam.

Badlisham said the airports have been quite successful in detecting prohibited items, such as aerosol, gel and liquid, as well as restricted medications and drugs.- Mkini